Three dates and a death
by Pinepitch
Summary: Soulmate AU. Percy knows the three most important dates in his life, but things get turned a little upside down. Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING
1. Chapter 1

Three dates. Inside the wrist of almost every single person, there were three dates. They predict a day and a month, but not a year. The only people exempt from these dates were the seers. They were the ones gifted with the ability to tattoo these onto a person, but they themselves had no use for such information.

They were immortal, and would never know the date of their death.

They were created through pain and hard toil, so never had a birthday.

They were maidens, so they would never have a soulmate.

It was an ancient (slightly painful) method, where minuscule knives were used to cut into the skin, leaving a trail of ink behind. Each tattoo was designed in such a way that only the possessor could read them; a handwriting unique to the way their brain worked. Percy Jackson loved his tattoos. They were the only thing he could read with any ease. Most got their tattoos when they reached the age of sixteen, not wishing to spend two of the three days every year watching out for their lives and soulmates. For Percy, he had gotten them as a child, as a form of comfort; it meant he had three-hundred-and-sixty-three days where he was certain he would survive.

"Rach, when do you get off work?" Percy strolled in to the parlor, a coffee in each hand.

"You know I promised Michelle that I'd cover her shift." Rachel looked up at him from the reception and rolled her eyes. She was a confident, red headed girl, with pretty green eyes, and a penchant for trouble. She was also a seer.

"Yeah, but it's dead in here!" Percy moaned. "Who's gonna get a tattoo done on a Tuesday evening?" He passed her a coffee and rested his arms on the desk, towering over her. She looked up, and around, smirking.

"Okay, fine. But let me see if Michelle is done with her hangover yet." Rachel laughed, picking up the phone. Her friend smiled. He knew he could usually convince Rachel to skip out - she wasn't really dedicated to her calling. But she was one of the most talented tattoo artists around, so no one was likely to fire her. Percy (being the ultimate best friend) knew the truth about the seers.

Society saw them as these frightening and mystic people. A lot of folks were scared of them, but Percy knew what really went on behind the scenes. True, there was a specific requirement to be a seer, but it wasn't as magical as everyone assumed. Seers were the children born between two people who weren't soulmates, but they were the product of true love. Children like this were rare, and since those children weren't brought about by a soulmate, they couldn't find one of their own. Percy had known Rachel Elizabeth Dare since they were small children - their fathers were rivals in business. It had come as a shock to everybody when Rachel had gone to get her tattoos done with Percy, and been told she was not her mother's daughter, but a mistake brought about by a hushed up affair. There had been tears and anger and accusations, but when Rachel had been asked to leave home to travel to the Cloisters (where seers were taught how to see), she had gone willingly, never returning to her parents. Percy was the only remnant of her past.

"C'mon!" Rachel cried, tugging him down the street. They were headed for their favorite bar, and Rachel was practically skipping with excitement. It wasn't that often that she had an excuse to stay out of the Cloisters, despite being twenty-two. Right now though, she had her best friend, bad karaoke, and a night of beer to look forward to.


	2. Chapter 2

Percy was anxious. He wanted nothing more than to spend the night out with Rachel, but he couldn't help glancing at the markings on his wrist.

10/11

16/05

18/08

He knew of course, that his birthday was the eighteenth of August. He just didn't know what the others meant, and with it already October, he had started wondering if he would meet his soulmate this year. He followed Rachel down the street, grinning, but internally he was struggling.

A soulmate was something he had wanted ever since he was a small child. His mother and father were soulmates, and he couldn't help but wish for something that extraordinary. Soulmates that found each other could light up a room just by looking at each other.

When he was young, he had been certain his soulmate would be Rachel, but when the truth had come out, he had set his mind on searching.

When his father had died in a horrible incident on one of his fishing boats, Percy had cried himself to sleep at night for months. But his mother was worse. She had sat and stared into space, her eyes glassy. She didn't eat or drink, and Percy had desperately tried to decipher her own tattoos. But he couldn't. No one could, and Percy feared she would expire right there in their kitchen. But she learned to get on with her life, and Percy thought everything might be okay, that maybe they'd recover from the loss of her soulmate. Until she brought Gabe home.

Then Percy began counting the days of the year he couldn't die. The days of the year the beatings wouldn't be the end of him, hiding on the days they might.

A soulmate became secondary.

But now he was twenty-three, and he was wondering about his soulmate again. Soulmates were tricky. They could be anyone. They were normally someone you had known a long time. Frequently, old friends got their tattoos only to find that they were meant for each other. Occasionally, they were someone you disliked but learned to love. Rarely were they a stranger. When this happened, the two usually didn't find each other until later on in life. It had been a game when Percy was little. He had heard the girls on the playground pointing out who might be soulmates. Everyone thought it would be Rachel and Percy. Everyone was wrong.

He walked into the bar.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi! I'm not actually new here... well, to this fandom, yes. I thought I'd let you guys read some before I interjected with an author's note. I just wanted to let you know I have no clue where this is going, so this will be as much a surprise to myself as to you guys. That's why I'm doing short chapters right now. Some might be longer, and some might only have a couple lines.  
** **As always, I love you all, please read, please review. You're awesome.  
** **I own nothing in this universe  
xoxo Pinepitch**

* * *

The place was dead. Percy and Rachel had expected that, it being a Tuesday evening and all, but it was still a bit lame. There were only two others in the place, playing pool. Both men wolf-whistled at Rachel. She gave them a characteristic eye roll. The bartender was a young woman, wiping out a glass.

"What can I get you?" She asked, directing the question at Rachel.

"I'll have whatever's on tap. He'll have a Bacardi and Coke." She said, hopping onto a bar stool.

"Really, Thalia?" Percy asked, sitting next to Rachel. "You're not going to acknowledge your own cousin?" Thalia turned her gaze on him sharply.

"Are you going to try and convince me to join the artful sycophants?" She snapped, grabbing a glass.

"Hey!" Rachel protested. "Artful sycophant over here!"

"I didn't mean _you_." The bartender said in a very unapologetic way. "I just don't want to be controlled by a destiny I didn't choose. Besides, it's not like you're stellar at following the rules." She nodded to Rachel's arms. The poor girl, while following direct orders on what she was supposed to do, had covered her arms in beautiful designs in an attempt to hide who she was from anyone. Thalia's method was just to wear long sleeves.

"I think we're all controlled by something of the sort." Percy muttered glumly, sipping at his drink. Thalia stared at him.

"There is no _way_ you are making me feel bad for you and your perfectly predicted life." She said.

"Thalia!" Rachel scolded. "He's got a month until his next date! This could be his last month alive!" Thalia put the drinks on the counter, her blue eyes electric.

"It could be my last day! I don't have the tattoos, I could get hit by a bus and die on my way home!"

"Well, if you moved to the Cloisters…" Rachel muttered. Percy couldn't tell if Rachel wanted Thalia to embrace her future as a seer so that she'd have a stable career, or so that she'd have an immortal friend. He thought it was probably the latter, even though they were pretty sure Thalia was immortal without all the crappy pain and suffering endured during training. The thing was, there wasn't a recorded case of someone who refused a life as a seer.

Thalia clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"Between you and Perce, I'm never gonna get any peace, am I?"

"No." The two others chorused.

"In that case, I'm going home. Don't get into any trouble, and don't scare the new girl." She gave them a severe glare as the girl taking over her shift walked behind the bar. "She'll have beer, and he'll have pretty much anything with rum that isn't neat. Cut him off after his fourth. That's an order." Thalia said to the new girl before re-directing her attention to her friend and cousin.

"If it's gonna be your last month, I want you to remember it. Give her any trouble, and I'll whoop both your asses." With that, Thalia stalked out the back door.

"Hope she doesn't get hit by a bus." Rachel sniggered. Percy snorted into his drink. "What's your name?" She asked the new girl. The girl was clearly nervous, but kept her cool, tilting her chin up to display a fire in her grey eyes.

"Annabeth."


	4. Chapter 4

**These chapters are short and sweet. Like me. Actually, I'm close to the national average for height and a cynical witch 90% of the time, so while these chapters are short and sweet, I retract my earlier statement to clarify that I am neither short nor sweet. Again, I have no plot. This is organic, so go with the flow, peeps. I'm leaving the US to go back home to England tomorrow, so this may well be it for the night.  
** **Read and review, my beautiful people  
** **xoxo Pinepitch**

* * *

"Jesus Christ." Annabeth sat straight up in bed, looking around her. The place was nothing special, just a loft apartment, sparsely furnished with second hand furniture, but it was most definitely not where she wanted to be.

Damn, that girl Rachel could _drink_.

Annabeth put a hand to her head. It was pounding slightly. More than anything else, she wanted to be back in her own apartment with her three roommates, and be moping about the failure of the day before.

"Morning." Said the boy next to her. He wrapped an arm lazily around her waist, pulling her back down and close to him. As much as she wanted to resist, Percy looked so cute with his black hair all mussed and his sea-green eyes dopey with sleep. Annabeth curled herself into the space where she seemed to fit perfectly, and dozed off again, Percy combing her hair softly with his fingers.

* * *

"Now. I need to get there _now_." Annabeth shouted at Percy. He stood there, looking shocked, the cup of coffee he had been trying to offer her still in his outstretched hand. Annabeth started pacing, running her hands through her hair until it turned into a frizzy mess. Percy set the cup of coffee on the island, and tried to reach out to the panicking girl in front of him, but she just flinched away. Percy was hurt by the gesture, but he just grabbed his keys, striking to the door.

"Let's go then." He said shortly. He had known it would be a bad idea to bring a girl home he had just met, but still, something about her had been irresistible. She strode past him, and punched the button for the elevator. Percy took the stairs.

* * *

"I'm sorry." The girl in front of him looked thoroughly stressed. She had taken the morning after pill, and was now miserably staring into the cup of coffee Percy had bought her.

"It's alright." Percy said, having already forgiven her for her grumpiness. "You don't have to drink the stuff. I just thought you might like a pick me up."

"I wasn't talking about the coffee, Percy." She glanced up at him. "I'm sorry I've caused you this trouble." Her expression was heartbreaking.

"It's no trouble!" The boy protested, eyes wide and earnest. And strangely, Annabeth believed him. She couldn't tell him the truth, why she was so scared. A child as the product of a one night stand would be bad enough, but for the child to be from someone who wasn't her soulmate? That was something she just couldn't imagine. She had seen the worst the world could do to those children.

"Thanks for the coffee. I did have a good time… up until, well, you know." _Up until we realized the lack of contraception._

"So did I." Percy smiled, and it was a calm, appeasing sort of smile, that made Annabeth's heart wanted to sing. "Do you think we could go out again sometime?" Annabeth wanted to say no. She wanted to point out that if they went out, they might like each other, and fall in love. Which would be dangerous when one of them found their soulmate. It would leave the other broken and unstable. She had seen it happen. On the other hand, her mind let her know that she couldn't just put her love life on hold because one day, some guy was going to stumble across her path and love her eternally. She glanced down at her tattoos. This was something she rarely did. She had no wish to memorize the dates and be tied down by fear and hope.

"What's today's date?" She asked, urgently.

"October eleventh." Percy shrugged. "Wednesday."

"Oh crap." Annabeth whispered.

"What?" He met her eyes with a questioning gaze.

"This is either some cosmic joke… or… you're my soulmate."


	5. Author's Note - Sorry!

**Hi! Feel free to ignore this if you hate those super annoying author's notes that pose as a chapter and let you down. Because that's what this is. Actually, this is kinda worse than that - it's an apology. Nothing deep, don't worry, I just wanted to thank everyone who let me know I double posted a chapter, and to let you know I'm working on one to take its place. Sorry about that, by the way. The traveling really got to me. And, I wrote NOTHING on the plane... the entertainment on there was surprisingly good, and I had a whole row to myself, meaning I was** **asleep before I got to watch a second movie.  
** **I'll post something once I've unpacked and finished drinking my third hot chocolate. Love you all :)  
xoxo Pinepitch**


	6. Chapter 5

**Hi! Sorry about that little mishap with the double posting - oops! Thanks to everyone who helped me rectify the situation, and here's a little over-tired writing I did to appease you, my lovely readers. It's longer, to be sure, and the chapters are getting slightly (fingers crossed) more cohesive. Stay tuned, folks.  
** **xoxo Pinepitch**

* * *

He hadn't given her an answer, and never in his life had Percy been so glad that no one else could read the ink markings on his wrist. He could tell that Annabeth was conflicted about the idea of even _finding_ her soulmate, although he couldn't imagine why. Percy couldn't bring himself to admit that he couldn't be her soulmate. Aside from not being able to crush her that way, he couldn't help the way his heart sped up when he saw her, the way she could choke him up with one quirky expression. He hoped she was his soulmate. He could easily convince himself that it was just his dyslexia spreading to the most intimate part of his life, making him believe that what he had always believed was 10/11 was actually 11/10. But since he couldn't ask anyone to check it for him, he could never be sure.

He was with Rachel again, and she was idly doodling.

"Look, Percy, I don't see why this is such a big deal." Rachel, said, finishing a mandala on his breakfast table. He would've told her off, except for the fact that she'd done this on every other piece of furniture he owned. Besides, the things she did normally came out pretty beautiful.

"Because I don't think she's my soulmate." He said, exasperated.

"And what's wrong with that?"

"Well, what if I fall in love with her?"

"Yeah?"

"And then meet my soulmate?"

"Wouldn't you just choose her, the person you're in love with?" Rachel was looking at Percy with the expression that infuriated him the most; the one that said he was an idiot. Percy ran his hands through his hair, trying to bite back the irritation building in him.

"Look, it's not that simple."

"I would think staying with someone you love instead of someone pre-destined for you would be simple."

"You don't get it." Percy said through gritted teeth. Rachel had a quick temper, and he could see it about to set off.

"And why's that, Perce? Because I'm a seer? Or because I couldn't possibly imagine loving someone like a soulmate?

"No!" Percy said, trying to backtrack. "I just - I just meant…" But he didn't know what to say. On some level, that was exactly what he'd meant. He thought seers didn't consider things like soulmates. Rachel stood.

"Lord, Percy, I work in the business of soulmates, you think I've never thought about it?" Rachel's eyes were suspiciously shiny. She stood, taking the pen she'd been doodling with and stalked out the door. She passed Annabeth on her way out, and avoided looking at her. Percy stood as well. Frustration and anger and confusion were boiling in him. Annabeth shut the door gently, unsure of how to approach the situation. Since the night she'd met Percy and Rachel three weeks ago, she had her suspicions about the seer, and was worried that she had expressed her feelings. Percy stood there running his hands through his hair - a characteristic move on his part. He was clearly stressed. Annabeth walked over to him, wrapping her arms around him silently. It felt much longer than three weeks since she had met this boy, but she didn't want to voice her fears, because she was afraid she was falling in love with him. With her head pressed to his chest, she could feel his heartbeat. It was like home - a place she'd never known. She would have to talk to Thalia, but first the boy in front of her clearly needed some TLC.

"What happened?" Annabeth whispered into his chest. She felt one hand come down to stroke her hair, a gentle gesture that made her own heart flutter.

"Rachel just… I don't know. I think I upset her." Percy said quietly. He tried to pull back from her, without realizing she needed him as much as he needed her. She clung to him even as he said "I need to tell you something."

"No, you don't." Annabeth said firmly. She knew what he was going to say, and she couldn't bear it.

"Yes, I do." Percy unattached himself, and looked her in the eyes. "Miss Chase, will you go to dinner with me?"

* * *

She looked beautiful, at least in Percy's opinion. Her hair was pinned away from her face, so he could see her steely eyes flashing in the firelight. She was wearing a dark blue dress with beads that looked like starlight. And her smile. It was unreserved, completely and utterly free. They had dinner, at a small place with too posh couples that served its food in tiny portions for too much money. But after an affair like dinner had been, they'd felt the necessity of getting back to the real world, at least what had been real for them. So with his suit jacket around her shoulders, they'd made a bonfire on the beach, and sat there, just staring at the waves, occasionally looking at each other. Small smiles and stolen kisses and every moment was as golden as the flames dying on the sand. Percy couldn't think of a better way to spend the evening, and he realized with a horrifying certainty that despite his fears of falling in love with Annabeth, he was already there. In the space of a few weeks, this girl had already captured his heart, and made it impossible to think about anything else. Maybe she _was_ his soulmate. The thought terrified and elated him all at the same time. He held her in his arms, saying nothing, because nothing needed to be said. For the first time in his life, he wasn't thinking about work, or his friends, or anything except the beautiful girl in front of him.

"What are you thinking about?" Annabeth asked, half turning towards him.

"You." He said affectionately.

"What about me?"

"Just that you're amazing and wonderful and beautiful and smart and awesome." He sighed. She laughed.

"Well, I definitely agree with your conclusion, but how did you get there?"

"Ummm…" Percy trailed off.

"Don't worry, Seaweed Brain."

"Seaweed Brain?" He asked, indignant.

"Yeah, I think it suits you."

"I'm not sure I like it." Percy said, wondering if she was calling him stupid.

"Oh, Percy, it's not an insult, more like a term of endearment. You're _my_ Seaweed Brain." She said, holding one of the arms wrapped around her, eyes trained on the driftwood fire slowly dying. Percy couldn't argue when she called him _hers_.

"Alright then, Wise Girl."


End file.
